Not over the Hill

The NBA stopped the train and let off Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson when they were 36, Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West at 35, Isiah Thomas at 32.

Michael Jordan played 50 days past his 40th birthday but he was also his team's general manager. John Stockton and Karl Malone both got to 40, but they weren't really flesh and blood.

Grant Hill certainly is.

In four separate seasons with Orlando, Hill missed 260 games, mostly because of ankle problems that threatened to devastate more than his career.

In 2003, doctors resorted to a procedure that re-broke his ankle and attached it to his leg.

It almost became a classic illustration of the operation succeeding and the patient dying, because Hill was overcome by an MRSA staph infection and a fever of 104.5.

“I had a hole in my ankle, and a skin graft flap, and I went into shock,” Hill said Thursday. “I was as close as I've ever been to dying. A plastic surgeon came in one day at Duke Hospital and gave me a pep talk, telling me I was going to play again. I said, ‘This man's crazy.'

“At that point I thought it was over. I didn't want to play. I wanted to crawl into a hole.”

So Friday was an NBA occasion. Hill turned 40 and will become the 18th man to play regularly in the NBA at that age, this year with the Clippers. Kurt Thomas of the Knicks became the 17th, on Thursday.

Celebration plans?

“I don't know, we're going to be in Vegas,” Hill said. “That could be dangerous.

“I've always been in training camp during my birthday. I always felt it wouldn't be right to have a big party. So maybe I'll have a big retirement/40th birthday celebration when I retire, seven years from now.”

He was kidding, perhaps. But then Hill started 46 Phoenix games last year and averaged 28.1 minutes despite the accelerated schedule.

He also averaged 10 points a game, continuing to morph into a little-bit-of-everything swingman who still can guard Kobe Bryant without needing asbestos.

Hill and Lamar Odom make the Clippers defensively viable on the edges. Hill might have done the same for the Lakers, especially after ex-Suns teammate Steve Nash campaigned for him, but nothing materialized.

“I'm going to have to fire Steve as my agent,” Hill said, laughing.

“I feel good about being here. Probably, realistically, there are 5-6-7 teams that have a chance to win. Maybe to most people it's a bit contrarian, not the obvious choice. I like not going to a place where they've already done it.”

Like Malone, Barkley and Stockton, Hill hasn't done it, yet.

That will not hover over his resume like a vulture, but he does say, “You don't want to be just playing to be playing. You want to have something to shoot for.”

Hill wrote his winning credentials at Duke, on 1991 and 1992 NCAA champions, and he would have been on the 2000 Olympic team if not for his ankle.

In his first six seasons, he had points-rebounds-assists numbers that have only been surpassed by Robertson, Bird and LeBron James.

Beyond that, Hill will be remembered (when he retires in 2020) as the successor to Julius Erving, a model of dignity and benevolence who, almost effortlessly, has upgraded the NBA biosphere.

He has the whole world at his feet when he gives this up: high finance, entertainment, politics. His wife, Tamia, has suggested car pooling.

But minutes remain on his body clock, so not yet.

How much of Hill's sunshine spurt is because of fresh legs and rebuilt ankles?

“I did miss time,” he said. “But 40 is still 40.

“With technology and nutrition, you could see more guys play effectively as this age. I have different taste buds than I did when I was 25. I try not to get out of shape in the first place. And you make sacrifices. I love to play pickup ball, I'd do it all the time, but I can't.”

Of those 40-year-olds, all but three were centers or power forwards. Jordan, Stockton, Hill and John Long were the open-court players.

“It can be an advantage,” he said. “They say, look at that old guy. Then I beat them down the court and start playing defense. I've not advocating age, like (George) Foreman did 20 years ago, but I'm having fun.

“I'm actually glad it happened like it did. Overcoming all that adversity, having a career, having memories, experiences, relationships, I'm more proud of that than anything I've done. To me, that's my championship.”

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